Spear REIT Limited has announced the acquisition of the Liberty Life Regional Head Office from Liberty Group and 2 Degrees Properties for R370 million.
The property comprises of 18 244m2 of AAA Grade corporate office space situated in the sought-after Waterview Park Precinct of Century City in Cape Town.
The anchor tenants in the property are Liberty Life & Liberty Health. The building overlooks the Intaka wetlands with spectacular views of Table Mountain and boasts a green star rated certification, reverse osmosis water system, state of the art conferencing facilities, walk in policy holder medical testing facilities and a plethora of other corporate amenities expected in a AAA corporate office building of this nature.
“The acquisition is in line with Spears strategy to own high quality assets
within well-established nodes in Cape Town that are accretive to the core Spear Portfolio and in this instance generates an initial yield to our shareholders of 9,31%. Century City stands out positively amongst many other factors as a sought-after commercial office precinct attracting high quality corporate office users within the highly successful mixed-use environment” comments CEO of Spear REIT, Quintin Rossi.
Post Spear’s acquisition of the Liberty Life building the portfolio would have grown from a 2016 listing value of R 1,4 billion in assets to in excess of R 4,3 billion of high-quality Western Cape only assets. The acquisition of the Liberty Life building will bring Spears assets owned in Century City to three AAA grade office buildings with a combined value of approximately R 700 million.
Rossi sees Century City as an ongoing investment location for Spear with a targeted R 2 billion of assets under ownership to be achieved over the next 5 – 7 years which will be both in line with Spears investment strategy and its focus on earnings enhancing acquisitions.
Rossi notes: “All well-established real estate nodes whether commercial, industrial or retail remain attractive investment opportunities for Spear on the premise that they are in line with our investment strategy, located in the Western Cape and will be earnings enhancing to the fund. Spears regional focus, hands on asset management and early engagement strategy contributes towards the ongoing positive performance of Spear together with a world class asset, financial & property management team.”
Spear remains the only regionally focused REIT listed on the JSE specializing in owning high quality Western Cape only assets. Spear recently announced its interim results for the first six months of their 2020 financial year delivering stellar results with a 7% growth in its interim distributions to its shareholders compared to the prior year.
